War Logs

An Inside View

The whistleblower website WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US field reports from military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2004 and 2009. The documents provide an open window into the violence and chaos of the wars from the viewpoint of the soldiers fighting it.

Chat transcripts by Bradley Manning, the alleged source of secret US government documents for WikiLeaks, will be used as evidence in his military trial. They reveal a conflicted and lonely young soldier who felt strongly about revealing "almost criminal" behavior. He's spent 14 months in jail, but there is still no date for his trial. By Marcel Rosenbachmore...

He may be on the short list for Time magazine's "person of the year," but many Americans consider Julian Assange to be a criminal and a terrorist. The WikiLeaks founder has been fighting a battle on several fronts since the publication of the diplomatic cables. He has now been arrested in London. By Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Starkmore...[ Comment ]

The Iraq logs published by WikiLeaks convey the brutal reality of a war that claimed over 100,000 lives and traumatized a generation of Iraqi civilians. They also raise fresh questions over why the US justice system has done so little to probe war crimes committed during the conflict, write German commentators. more...

With its invasion of Iraq, the United States rid the Iraqi people of a tyrant. But it also broke the law and destroyed tens of thousands of lives. With the release of close to 400,000 Iraq logs by WikiLeaks and the coming publication of George W. Bush's memoir, it is time to take stock of a war that was catastrophic for Iraq and America's standing in the world. By Alexander Smoltczyk and Bernhard Zandmore...[ Comment ]

The online whistleblower platform WikiLeaks is posting close to 400,000 US military reports from the Iraq war on the Web. The logs show in detail how brutally the war was waged and the helplessness with which the United States acted. By SPIEGEL Staffmore...[ Comment ]

Hundreds of thousands of classified US military reports on the Iraq war have been published. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is rejecting all accusations that he has endangered lives by publishing the information. The US government is still seething. Will the publication spark a fresh debate over the horrors of war? By Marc Pitzke in New Yorkmore...

Two Iraqis wanted to surrender, but were gunned down by an American helicopter. The Iraq war logs reveal a number of dubious attacks by Apache helicopters and raise the question of whether US pilots committed war crimes. By Marcel Rosenbachmore...

In the greatest leak in the history of the United States military, WikiLeaks is publishing 391,832 classified documents on the Iraq war on the Internet. The field reports from soldiers cast a new light on the war -- documenting in a unique way how the highly armed American military was helpless in the conflict for years. By SPIEGEL Staffmore...[ Video | Comment ]

The cruelty of war, documented in dry military lingo -- the WikiLeaks documents cleary show just how much the people of Iraq suffered in recent years. SPIEGEL ONLINE has documented the torture, murder and terror experienced on a single day during the Iraq war -- Nov. 23, 2006, as it was seen by US soldiers. By Friederike Freiburgmore...[ Video | Comment ]

Is it acceptable to publish classified Pentagon documents? Is the need for states to keep secrets more important than the public's right to information? SPIEGEL has independently vetted and analyzed the WikiLeaks Iraq war logs and has decided to publish them. The reports provide a first-hand view of the war that may change the way people view such campaigns. By SPIEGEL Staff more...[ Video | Comment ]